And by the way, shouldn't the word Simpson used be spelled "teat"? The "tit" pronunciation of "teat" is seared in my memory, because once, years ago, I read the phrase "colder than a witch's teat" and pronounced it "teet." Apparently, at least in some sectors — possibly including Wyoming — you sound like a fool if you say "teet." It's "tit." "Tit" for "teat."

Discuss!

IN THE COMMENTS: Charlie Martin said:

You're correct about the pronunciation. /tit/ is the common pronunciation for most country folks and is listed as the preferred pronunciation in some dictionaries, and is the technical term in dairy farming for the place where the milk comes outta.

/teet/ is the preferred pronunciation for the sort of little old ladies that say the table has "limbs" and city folks who think what the milk comes outta is a cardboard box.

Anne B. said:

I'm pretty sure Mencken used it first, or at least used it earlier. "A milch cow with 125,000,000 teats" was his description of the second FDR administration.

Why did Simpson retreat? He could have made his critics look dumb and elitist by pointing out a literary reference they didn't get and a country-style pronunciation they weren't in touch with.

CORRECTIONS: I made 2 little corrections: adding a "d" to "pronounce" is paragraph 2 and deleting the stray word "embarrassed" after "look" in the last paragraph. I don't always note superficial tidying up like that, but I'm doing it this time because I just have the feeling that Althouse-haters are quoting the "embarrassed" mistake and saying I should be "embarrassed." I'm not trying to hide that I'm capable of typing and editing mishaps, only trying to make things as readable as possible.

ADDED: Simpson's comment was made by email, so he chose the spelling "tit."

You;re correct about the pronunciation. /tit/ is the common pronunciation for most country folks and is listed as the preferred pronunciation in some dictionaries, and is the technical term in dairy farming for the place where the milk comes outta.

/teet/ is the preferred pronunciation for the sort of little old ladies that say the table has "limbs" and city folks who think what the milk comes outta is a cardboard box.

"It's a standard expression. Simpson came up with a brilliantly memorable variation to describe social security: "a milk cow with 310 million tits." Then he let himself get pushed back by people who spewed faux outrage to keep anyone from using the powerful phrase ever again."

Just a reminder that "nigger" is a standard expression as well. Is there another "powerful phrase" that will be off limits next?

A three-titter is a cow who has lost the function of one of her "quarters". My vet says never buy a three-titter. If she loses another "quarter" she'll be a two-titter and the only place for a two-titter is in the house.

I had been taught that teats are for animals and tits are for women. Maybe that is the "outrage". Visual image of people and women's tits.

Your story is not exactly what he said. For ACCURACY: his actual quote:

"I've made some plenty smart cracks about people on Social Security who milk it to the last degree. You know 'em too. It's the same with any system in America. We've reached a point now where it's like a milk cow with 310 million tits! Call when you get honest work"

He is absolutely right.

SSI, NOT Social Security, is paid to people who are gaming the system and who mostly have never ever worked a "lick in their lives"...to use another rural colloquialism.

The "American System" (welfare, unemployment, Medicaid, SSI, disability) has become a way of life for many people who suck from those who work.

The better analogy would be more like "ticks on a coon dog". 310 million ticks sucking the lifeblood from the American worker and the American economy.

The permanent professional blood suckers are "as useless as tits on a boar".

The sight of Simpson makes me nuts. He was in the Senate for years and it along with the House and various presidents are responsible for this system.

Now, we are supposed to trust him to fix it? It's like hiring a contractor to build an addition on your house but he knocks your whole house off its foundation. Then you pay the same contractor to fix everything.

Simpson and his Senate colleagues should be arrested for gross malfeasance in office. He should be out on bail and sweating the thought of going to jail for the rest of his life. Instead he is an insufferable arrogant prick.

I'm with Dudley -- I've paid into Social Security since I was 16, and have been paying the annual maximum for over 30 years. Now that idiot Simpson thinks I'm not entitled to get at least some of that back?

Just another Lefty trying to find something to be angry about. So let's be mad Simpson used a simile(?) involving a slightly vulgar colloquialism, rather than The Zero's idiotic and counterproductive spending.

The Blonde, she of the legendary bosom, Ohio-born and -raised , has always used 'tit' for all creatures great and small, although the proper word, and pronunciation, would seem to be 'teat'. Can't ever recall 'teat' being pronounced 'tit'.

PS The 'colder than...' metaphor Ann quotes must be a Midwest thing. It never crossed my ears in SE PA.

The Blonde is into Wicca and all that and only her hands are cold - and that's just in winter.

C3- sorry but IMO you are not looking closely enough. He looks down on the little people who "just can't understand these complex issues". It's not complex, we paid in our money and creeps like Simpson spent it. Now he wants to fix it- I say indict him.

So far, no one in govt has been fired for 911, bank failure, housing collapse, Fannie Fweddie insolvency, and the insolvency of medicare and social security, states insolvencies, etc. Why is that?

I remember that while in office Simpson was famous for his humor. For example, he used to end campaign speeches with, "Those are my views, and if you don't like them, I'll change 'em."

On the one hand this is annoyingly flip, but on the other hand it beats the way President Obama ends his speeches (at least implicitly): "Those are my views, and if you and a majority of other Americans don't like them, I couldn't care less, and I'm going to ram them through anyway, because I won! MWAH-HA-HA-HA-HA!"

Like every working American, I get the annual statement from the Social Security Administration telling me how much they'll pay me if I retire at different ages.

This year, mine had a whole article about how people say SS will be broke by the time I retire, and it totally will, but I’ll still get money just 30% less. It was mind boggling and not terribly convincing. We’ll be broke, but you’ll still get money, we swear! Even if the law changes! Even if we have no idea how the law will change! Oh and btw, you have enough credits to retire but you’ll have to 67 or 69 or something to do so. I’m sure nothing will change in the 30+ years it will take me to get there.

Important question: If you're paying into Social Security, yet not old enough, or disabled enough to be sucking on the teat, might you not be a bigger sucker? And the younger you are...

It's not like you write a check (unless you're self employed). They yank it out of your pay before you ever see it. And they take it from your employer. I have no idea why people my age aren't more vocal on this.

So NOW wants him booted from the commission for saying "tits"? That's funny. I remember the president of NOW being interviewed during the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal. Her remarks were something along the lines of not having the time to follow every accusation of sexual harassment (even if it was against the President of the United States). I guess they just have a lot more free time on their hands these days.

Shanna, good point. Few realize that there is no difference between the "employee contribution" and the "employer contribution". The employee earns both and the employer pays both. Your true salary is 106.2% of your salary and your true FICA contribution is 12.4% of your salary or 11.7% of your true salary. And this ignores your Medicare contributions which make it look even worse. The self-employed are very aware of this as they lose 15.3% of the first and every dollar they earn to FICA and Medicare, up to the FICA limit, whatever it is now.

Ken Burns Civil War documentary includes a story of Lincoln hurrying through the lobby of the Hay Adams, when asked: "How's it going, Mr. President?"

"Too many pigs for the tits, sir, too many pigs for the tits."

Of course that was before the internet and so might be apocryphal.

Don't count on it. When Christopher Spencer was showing Abe his repeating rifle (which the Army refused to buy - it later became the most popular repeater of the War), he said it must be difficult running such a vast country during such a terrible war.

I'd like to see a poll ask Americans "Do you know that the govt gets 15.3% of your earnings for FICA and Medicare?"

Actually not Dad. The SS employee contribution is 6.2% that is matched by the employer. I know you like to lie about stuff out of context in threads that have nothing to do with what you want to post, but why don't you post the truth for a change....and by the way, SS is capped.

I don't know who you think you are talking to, but I don't know what you are talking about with your "I know you like to lie about stuff out of context in threads that have nothing to do with what you want to post, but why don't you post the truth for a change.." I have rarely commented here, for just this reason.

You quoted not me, but someone who asked me a question. If you go back and read my post you will see that I mentioned that there is a cap on FICA. I would reiterate that there is no difference between the employee and the employer share, but I think it's over your head. If you wish to continue to believe that you only contribute 6.2% to FICA, be my guest.

"Actually not Dad. The SS employee contribution is 6.2% that is matched by the employer. I know you like to lie about stuff out of context in threads that have nothing to do with what you want to post, but why don't you post the truth for a change....and by the way, SS is capped."

Actually if you are self employed or have self employed income of any kind (and many people do) you pay 15.3% (your half and what would be your employers half) which is the social security tax capped at somewhere over 100k and the medicare tax which is uncapped.

"Actually not Dad. The SS employee contribution is 6.2% that is matched by the employer. I know you like to lie about stuff out of context in threads that have nothing to do with what you want to post, but why don't you post the truth for a change....and by the way, SS is capped."

Anyway you slice it is money that is taken from the employee's paycheck and money that COULD have been used by the employer to either give the employee a raise or other benefits.

6.2 for social security1.45 for medicarematched by the employer for a total of 15.3% of compensation. Poof.....vanished into the maw of the government wasteland.

Ask the employee, especially YOUNG people, what they would rather have. Future benefits (ha ha ha ha) or a 7.65 to 15.3% raise.

Don't forget that we also get to pay State Income Taxes, SDI.....and the unemployment insurance premium taken from the employer's cash flow.

Now with the new added mandatory medical costs or penalties the employer will have even LESS to use to grow the business, hire new employees, pay existing employees more money.

Coming next...mandatory retirement plan funding for small businesses and the confiscation of those funds by the government. For our own safety ....of course.

Is it any wonder that we are in a recession/depression and businesses are not hiring?

My father, may he rest in peace, had no patience for anyone who said "teets" when they shoulda said "tits" 'cause they meant "teats." He was also very insistent that human offspring are "reared," never "raised." His vehemence on these matters made me suspect that perhaps they originated with his father, who was a schoolteacher.

If you please'm, do you endorse government surveillance of SSI recipients to ensure they are legitimate beneficiaries?

Damn straight I do.

There should be a reward system to turn in the cheats. I know several people right now that I would be thrilled to report.

There are many legitimate and needy beneficiaries of the system. SSI and welfare shouldn't be an open door no questions asked proposition.

I also advocate drug testing. If you are doing drugs on my tax dime, you go to jail and have to pay it back.

If you are collecting disability and are chopping wood as a sideline or working under the table. DO not pass GO. GO straight to jail or work for free and pay back the money you have stolen.

We work our asses off and are lucky to keep 20 to 30% of our own money. We are constantly told how selfish we are because we have made successes of ourselves through our own hard work and that we must share the wealth. BULLSHIT, I say.

I have no compunction about turning in the "cheaters" and making them suffer.

Simpson is co-Chair of Obama's commission to review federal finances. He has insulted Social Security recipients in this statement, basically calling them parasites.

So, why should we trust his fairness or his judgment? the actions they've reportedly (from Simpson) taken to slash Social Security are beyond the authority and charge of the commission anyway.

Beyond that he denigrates people who ask real, substantive questions about what this secretive commission is doing, in lieu of providing substantive answers. In now way is this BS Commission deliberating in a fair way. They've reached their conclusions: a) slash benefit programs, b) protect low tax rates for the wealthy, c) don't even look at the massive military and intelligence spending.

Social security disability could be replaced by an insurance policy I guess. Maybe take $1,000 per year out of the FICA tax from everyone in the first five years of their work life to fund a pre-paid subsistence disability policy.

But liberals would never agree to that - some insurance company might make a 4% or 5% profit. And we can't allow that!

There is nothing like the smell of fake outrage in the morning. Simpson is doing his job of performing the straight man role for the Dems who will condemn such a bad attitude and thus divert attention from fixing things at a level less than Grinch Simpson threatens. He is the designated target...like the servicemen in Afghanistan are deignated targets...all to make the Congress cons in DC look like they care about protecting citizens more than cash earmarked as loot for their buddies.

I was a dairy farmer for years and the word is tit. People think it should be teat, but amongst themselves the folks who actually milk those cows call them tits. A blogger from Wisconsin should know this. Just kidding.

"Now the fun stuff starts!" The "fun stuff," about one-sixth of the total cost, is an all-out effort to exploit the crisis to make green energy, green building and green transportation real; launch green manufacturing industries; computerize a pen-and-paper health system; promote data-driven school reforms; and ramp up the research of the future. "This is a chance to do something big, man!" Joe Biden said during a 90-minute interview with TIME.

[Sigh] Let's go to the OED, where the word "teat" refers to "the small protuberance at the tip of each breast or udder in the female mammalia" is pronounced "tit", "tyt", or "titte" and has the ever popular diminutive "tittie".

Then we have the word "tit" which is defined as "a sharp or sudden pull" or, in the phrase 'tit for tat' "one blow or stroke in return for another", or "as a term for a small animal or object", or "a name for a horse small of kind", or a deprecatory term for "a girl or small woman" ('a silly tit'), or in nail-making "a loose piece of steel used to jerk the finished nail out of the bore".

Sorry, but nowhere in the OED does it define the word "tit" as part of the breast or udder (udder, heh) of the female mammalia. So there.

The only thing I disagree with him on is the choice of milk cows. A sow is a much more apt comparison. Each piglet attaches itself to a particular nipple shortly after birth and returns to it repeatedly until weaned. Our government has become one big sow.

Why did Simpson retreat? He could have made his critics embarrassed look dumb and elitist by pointing out a literary reference they didn't get and a country-style pronunciation they weren't in touch with.

Because there's no way he could win that argument. Every day he didn't apologize would be another day that Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow would have their teats in a wringer, and the explanation would never be heard.

I am reminded of Henry Ford's refusal to build other than four cylinder cars because he had "no use for an engine that has more spark plugs than a cow has teats."

Didn't stop him from buying Henry Leland's Lincoln plant, though.

"Sucking the government tit" to mean accepting money for value or not is a very, very old expression. Simpson needs to get booted with the rest of the crowd I disparaged yesterday if he hasn't the balls to defend such an eminently correct statement.

My grandfather raised milk cows and sold Surge milking machines. I still have a glass they gave away as a promotional item, which had their marketing slogan during the middle of the last century. It was a farmer pointing at a cow with only one of the items in question. He was saying, "If I had only one cow, and she had only one tit, I'd still user my Surge milker!"

HD: Oh, I forgot, my point. My point is that you shouldn't post when drunk or hungover which puts a window of about 5 mid day hours. Tops. That was my point about the unemployment rate being about twice the rate now as at the end of GWB. You dumb fuck.

Michael said... "That was my point about the unemployment rate being about twice the rate now as at the end of GWB. You dumb fuck."

now now little Michael. I know reading with comprehension is a challenge to you. The stats you cite were "yearly average" unemployment rates not "when Bush left office". If you look back you'll find that in the beginning of 2008 the non-adjusted unemployment rate was under 5%. In the last 3 months of Bush's term and during the first 4 months of 2009, the mess THAT BUSH CREATED rose to present levels. The true unemployment rate is probably twice what is recorded at BLS which is what they and most experts freely admit. And you can scream "don't blame bush" all you want but his policies were a catastrophe of mismanagement, greed and bungling. Simply put, the economy went into the crapper under his "leadership" and was in freefall when Obama took office.

No one is arguing that there isn't rampant unemployment right now and that jobs are scarce. The point, numbnuts, is that unemployment took hold under Bush and accelerated at the fastest pace since the depression.

Don't get so touchy about being stupid ok? I understand your need to vindicate that looser but your dog just doesn't hunt. Take comfort in the fact that you aren't alone - half the world is below average.

HD - Bush left office on Jan 21, 2009. It was Obama who promised that the Stimulus bill would keep the unemployment rate from exceeding 8 percent. After 18+ months in office, 63 percent of stimulus funds spent, and a 9.5 percent umemployment rate - its past time to pin the rose on the Obamaman.

Unadjusted in the last month of Bush's office the unemployment rate had climbed to 7.6 percent. I read somewhere that it could be higher today, but then I live in the real world and am not scraping by in the cheap seats on the east end of the long island.

I'll certainly concede that on the day numbnuts left office unemployment was just under 8% seasonally adjusted. I'll also concede that it peaked by the end of last year above 10% and has at least halted its wild ride up.

I won't concede that Bush's policies pushed the economy over the edge of the cliff and it was a miracle that Obama could rescue things and keep them from going to unrecoverable depths.

I fail to see how Obama is responsible for Bush's disaster...but then again when 9-11 happened that was blamed on Clinton so I guess there is some precedent for blaming the guy before you. Right folks?

Oh and Bob...no roses yet for the Obamaman but if you want to pin the tail on the donkey, I think Bush is in Texas hiding out. Can't miss him. Looks like Alfred E. Newman without the flicker of intelligence.